I’ve noticed a pattern in my blogging… It’s usually most active during and around Ramadan. So without further ado, here’s what we are trying to do this year.

Every year I found myself planning and working with the kids right before Ramadan or during it. But I really want to spend my Ramadan with less planning and organizing and more achieving in the sense of Ibadah and organized learning and Ramadan themed activities with kids. I’ve been wanting to start early and vowed not to let time pass away this time. This is exactly what I told my kids.

I also told them that Inshallah we will all try and work together to raise our level of Eiman BEFORE Ramadan so we can enjoy the best RAMADAN we’ve ever had in terms of perfection of Ibadah and in making conscious efforts in gaining extra Hasanat.

So here’s what we did. May Allah bless our efforts Ameen.

I sat down with the kids with calendar pages from March to June printed from worksheetworks.com and asked them to mark Ramadan and Eid. Then we counted how many days we have left for Ramadan starting from March 2nd.

So we’ve got approximately 108 days…….. Now what can we do make the most of these days to increase our levels of Eimaan. What areas do you think we need to work in…. let’s Brain storm.

Here’s what we came up with between Lil Muallim 1, 2 and Lil Muallimah…..

Improving Salah

Regularity in Quran Reading

Understanding Quran

Improving Duas

Improving Dhikr habit

Charity: monetary and through doing EXTRA good deeds

Learning Hadith and Sunnah

Alhumdolillah the brainstorming was fruitful and by the Mercy and Grace of Allah the kids came up with all the aspects I was hoping for.

Next up we brainstormed on what we had to do to achieve what we want in each area. You can also download a sample of our table or an empty template to work on your own

Finally we marked what we wanted to start out with first. I told the kids we will ease into those slowly making sure our progress is constant cause if we get into it full force ahead we might loose our steam and then not be able to achieve what we are hoping for.

We would like to move slowly but surely gaining momentum and Istiqamah Inshallah

Will try and post our progress as we move along with our plan….. First off kids are attending a Halaqah every week where they work Basic Islamic Concepts, Surah Translations, Duas and more through mini lapbooks and other wonderful resources graciously shared by Muslim Homeschool Moms.Ya Ar Rasheed….The Guide the Righteous teacher….please help us achieve our goal this year and let it not be just a plan….

Back in 2011 when Lil Muallimah was a toddler, in an effort to get the kids excited about Ramadan I made a Ramadan Sensory Tub. What had been just a brain wave and ended up becoming a fun and enriching experience for all of us by the blessings of Allah.

I spread out an old bordered cloth in tupper ware. Then I made prayer mats & kufi with felt and hijab with left over cloth from an & torn, cloth baggy. Lil Muallim 2 & Lil Muallimah had become really excited seeing those… wondering what they were for. They even laid down the prayer mat and and held the kufi on their heads and made sujood saying: “Look I did it! I made the smallest sajdah ever!”

The idea of a “Ramadan Sesnsory Tub” is to get to talk about Ramadan, it’s importance, requirements and activities.

Ramadan Sensory Tub Contents:

crescent moon and masjid with shiny card stock

two prayer mats

a hijab and kufi

a date wrapped in cling wrap

an empty wooden case of a very tiny mushaf for “Quran”

coins to show we should give Zakat

a small canvas frame with “Allah” on it to discuss dhikr, remebrance of Allah and being concsious of Allah at all times

When I introduced it to Lil Mualliamh. We got to discuss quite a few things Alhumdolillah! I got to see how her understanding of things could be enhanced by each time we went through the sensory tub Inshallah…..especially the importance and need of Dhikr and Zakah.

All my Lil Muallims really liked the Sensory tub and the older ones found it very cute.

Sensory Tub Vocabulary Words

Allah

Ramadan (9th Islamic Month)

Quran

dhikr

tamr (date fruit)

kufi (head cover for boys)

hijab (head cover for girls)

sajjadah (prayer mat)

hilal (crescent)

masjid (mosque)

sadaqah (good deed)

khairat (charity)

zakat

and hopefully more as we go

This year I will be redoing this for Lil Muallim # 3, but in a different way… Stay tuned.